Detainees Transferred

Number last 12 months

350

Out of total detained

2,008

Facility ranking on transfers

top 34 %

Table 1: Transfers

During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of
350 detainees were transferred by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
from the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility where they
had been temporarily housed to other facilities. The average
stay for these individuals before their transfer was 55 days.
The use of this facility for the temporary housing of federal immigration detainees was
arranged under a contract with Corrections Corporation of America that was in the business of providing
detention services for housing federal detainees.

Transfers made up 17 percent of the 2,008 detainees who in one way or
another left this facility during the last 12 months.
This report focuses just on these transfers.
The remaining individuals who departed from the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility last
year actually left ICE detention.
These individuals were deported from the country, released
under supervision while their cases was being decided, or left ICE detention for a variety of other
reasons.
For more information on this facility please see additional TRAC reports in this series.

This report series is based upon analyses conducted by the Transactional Records
Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University of 1.7 million government
records tracking each individual who passed through an ICE detention facility
during fiscal year 2015. This most recent 12 month period for which comprehensive data are
available covers October 2014 through September 2015.
See About the Data.

How This Facility Ranks Nationally

Detainee transfer rankings. The Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility was one of 637 facilities
nationwide that housed ICE detainees during the most recent 12 month period. Of these
637, there were 409 facilities that had at least 10 ICE detainee transfers
last year. Excluding those facilities with fewer than 10 transfers, the
Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility last year ranked in the top 34 percent nationwide in
the number of individuals it transferred to other ICE facilities.
This means that 34 percent of the locations contributed the same or a
larger numbers of transfers, while 66
percent had a smaller number. See Table 1.

Average length of stay before transfer. Once detainees arrived at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility their
average length of stay before being transferred on to another ICE facility was 55 days last year.
Ranking facilities from longest to shortest detention stays for their transfer population,
this average of 55 days placed Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility
in the top 13 percent of all facilities nationwide.
That is, for detainees who are transferred, 13 percent
of ICE detention facilities have the same or longer average stays last year,
while 87 percent of detention facilities had shorter average stays.

Origins and Destinations

Were these detainees arrested locally? Where did those that ended up being
transferred from the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility last year originate?
Information on the place of arrest was not included in the available data ICE
released. However, we can examine whether the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility was
the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held.
According to ICE records, for a substantial proportion (43 percent) of
these detainees, the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility was the first place they were
sent when they were detained by ICE.
The remaining 57 percent had been
transferred in from another ICE detention facility.

We can also look at how quickly they arrived at this facility after they were
first detained.
A total of 49 percent arrived at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility at some point
during the very first day they were detained by ICE. This
percentage is also based on an analysis of the most recent 12 months for which
data are available.

How soon did transfers occur? Nationally, the median number of days before an
ICE detainee is transferred to another facility was 1 days last year. That
means that half of all transfers occurred on or before the 1st day,
while half had longer stays before they were transferred on to another ICE facility. Note
that nationally the average stay at an ICE detention facility before an
individual is transferred is longer - 12 days. This is because
while most detainees have relatively short stays before ICE transfers them
elsewhere, sometimes stays are lengthy and these lengthy stays raise the average
to above the median stay.

For the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility last year, the median stay before a detainee
was transferred was 27 days. This is much longer than the national figure.
The average stay before transfers occurred was longer - 55 days - than the median stay. As noted above,
this figure placed the facility
in the top 13 percent among ICE detention facilities nationwide in the average number of days a detainee spent before he or she was transferred.

Figure 2: Transfer destinations during last 12 months

Where did those transferred get sent? ICE currently has great discretion about
where in the United States transferred detainees are sent. For the period
covered by these data, ICE divided the country into geographic regions or areas
and assigned each to one of 152 document control offices or DCOs for the purpose
of keeping track of detainees. Available data allow us to examine whether the
transfer occurred within the same DCO or the transfer was to a different DCO.
For the nation as a whole during the latest 12 months, 54 percent
were within the same DCO, while the remaining 46 percent were to a
different DCO.

Transfers

Facility Profile

U.S OverallProfile (%)

Number

Percent

Within region (DCO)

105

28%

54%

Outside region (DCO)

267

72%

46%

Total

372

100%

100%

Table 3: Transfer destinations during last 12 months

Figure 2 and accompanying Table 3 provide some comparative figures for how the
Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility stacks up against this national pattern.
Last year, 28 percent of the transfers from the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility were to locations in the same
region -- facilities under the control of same ICE docket control office.
The majority (72 percent) of the transfers went to detention facilities in a different region (DCO).

Nationalities

Which nationalities predominate? Last year in the United States, individuals
from Mexico comprised the largest number of those transferred by ICE. Some 41.3
percent of all transfers recorded Mexico as their country of origin.
The Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility had a much smaller proportion of detainees from Mexico - 2 percent - among their transfers.
Detainees from Mexico were not the largest single nationality group among the transfers at the facility.

Figure 3: Transfers by nationality

In descending order,
the top nationalities that made up transfers from the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility last year were:
Guatemala (21%)
, El Salvador (19%), Honduras (16%), Ecuador (9%) and Dominican Republic (8%).

For the frequency for each of the nationalities among transfers from the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility last year see Table 4.

Nationalities Ranked in Top 10

Transfers

Total

To Diff. DCO

% Diff DCO

-

ALL

372

267

71.8 %

1

Guatemala

78

68

87.2 %

2

El Salvador

71

62

87.3 %

3

Honduras

61

48

78.7 %

4

Ecuador

32

29

90.6 %

5

Dominican Republic

29

18

62.1 %

6

Colombia

16

10

62.5 %

7

China, Peoples Republic Of

11

4

36.4 %

Nigeria

11

2

18.2 %

9

Mexico

9

0

0.0 %

Nicaragua

9

8

88.9 %

Table 4: Transfers by nationality during the last 12 months

Out-of-region transfers by nationality. Within the nationalities that made up
those listed in Table 4, the proportion transferred out of the region
varied from 0 percent to 91 percent.
As mentioned above, on average 72 percent of detainees transferred from the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility were sent to detention
locations outside the region.

For Ecuador with a total of 32 transfers, 91 percent of transfers were out-of-region transfers.
At the other end of the range, none were out-of-region transfers for the 9 transfers from Mexico.